virtualDavis

“Working on the query letter” by Doug Sharp, on Flickr

I don’t think a query is a one-size-fits-all device. I don’t think the same query necessarily works for all agents or all authors. That being said, I don’t think it should either.

The most important part of the query is the blurb, the part that tells the agent about your book, the part that grabs her attention and makes her want to read more. Here’s the deal, though: What you should strive for is writing the query that best represents you and your book. It should show the reader a bit of your voice and the blurb shouldn’t necessarily be about hook or characters or plot. It should be that one thing about your book that makes it stand out from all others. (BookEnds)

Literary agent Jessica Faust over at BookEnds dishes up what-should-be-but-isn’t-so-obvious advice for all of query letter scribblers. Sell your book by selling yourself. Give’m a taste of your brilliance, grace, humor, whatever makes you stand out and stand tall. Distill your dazzle and intoxicate the agent/publisher… No pressure!

Related:

• Seduce the Agent
• Write. Book. Pitch. Agent. Right?

A visit to the New York Public library in 2006 by “an untrained eye” revealed this made-for-film moment. Too good. Almost too scripted…

The painting, the woman, teh bench, the floor, the pallet, the lighting, the woman’s action, the photographer’s framing all conspire to catapult would-be flaneurs into this arresting moment. Unstaged. Found art.

New York Public Library #5
Originally uploaded by an untrained eye

The greatest benefit of social media for indie authors is the chance to make and build connections with other authors, readers and publishing industry professionals. The quality of these connections (how consistent, how useful, how deep, how much trust. how good is your actual product/book/service?) will determine how many of your social media pals actually “convert” i.e. buy your book, interview you, review your book, give you a contract, share your posts etc.

This where your advantage lies because you, one man/woman writing publishing phenom that you are, can build deeper connections than the Stephen King’s and Susan Collins of this world.  Success and popularity can often decrease the depth of social media connections simply by dint of the numbers involved. Elite twitterati like Neil Gaiman and Paul Coehlo have mostly one way relationships with their followers because they can’t afford to read what all those followers have to say in turn.You don’t have that problem. (penswithcojones.com)

Highgate Cemetery
Originally uploaded by The Polstar

Strength or indifference. King of the living. King of the dead. Corona nodding toward classical architecture; living patina nodding toward the breathing, thriving, sun worshiping.

A lion by any other name. Perhaps on a headstone. Or a monument. In Highgate Cemetery. In London. A few years ago. Probably greener now. Features softened by time and photosynthesis. And eyes, lenses, cameras, flashes, monitors, internets, mobile browsing devices. The representations of representations.  Are you still with me?

Flaneur by macfred64 (Flickr)

Flanerie can, after Baudelaire, be understood as the activity of the sovereign spectator going about the city in order to find the things which will occupy his gaze and thus complete his otherwise incomplete identity… [The flaneur] emerges as a new sort of hero, the product of modernity. He is the spectator of the modern world. (Cat’s Cradle:Flanerie 1)

This idea captured my attention. Briefly. There are some intriguing parallels to be explored between the activities of a flaneur and a detective. Unfortunately this blogger only glances on the topic. And in a second related post he actually muddles the concept a bit when he explains that a flaneur intends to be observed by the crowd, his/her audience. Hmmm. This idea may run true in Baudelaire, but it strikes me as problematic with the figure of a detective who endeavors to be discrete, virtually invisible to gather essential data.

The figure of the “flaneur” prefigures that of the detective…It suits him perfectly to see his indolence presented as a facade behind which the sustained attention of an observer never letting his eyes off the unsuspecting criminal… The Flaneur is out to be seen.The crowd is the audience. Flanerie is a “crowd practice”…The “flaneur” is like a detective seeking clues who read peoples characters not only from the physiognomy of their faces but via a social physiognomy of the streets. The image and activity of a ” flanerie ” is tied to the emergence of the popular genre of the detective novel and also the literary practice and social justification of labour time of journalists who, like the “flaneur”, put their observations both for sale on the market and wish to pursue their own purposes…(Cat’s Cradle: Flaneur 2)

I’m interested in (and ill informed about) this relationship between flanerie and the emergence of the detective novel. It’s an intriguing premise, and perhaps Cat’s Cradle author, Alphie, will return to the theme soon. Or others? I look forward to discovering more!

While the e-book is an excellent entry into the digital world, it should not blind publishers so they miss the larger point. It is definitely not about focusing on specific formats, as their persistence (or rather brevity) in the market is impossible to predict. They may be called e-books or printed books, online publications or iPhone apps. A publisher should be able to serve all of these formats, without focusing exclusively on one… Particular attention must be paid to the quality of the content and its editing. XML, semantics and RDF emerge as main priorities.(Publishing Perspectives)

More:

• Why Publishers Need Agile Content: XML, Semantics and RDF

Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels are to be published in ebook form for the first time this week – but not by Penguin, Fleming’s print publisher. The 14 books, including Casino Royale, Live and Let Die and From Russia With Love, are being published independently by Ian Fleming Publications, the family company that owns and administers the author’s literary copyright. The Fleming ebooks would be priced “in line with the lowest-priced Bond paperback editions available on the market”, the company said. (via guardian.co.uk)

Corinne Turner, Managing Director, Ian Fleming Publications Ltd, comments: “Ian Fleming wrote his James Bond novels to be read and enjoyed by everyone, and we are always looking for opportunities to introduce new audiences to Bond’s adventures. Fleming loved good, new technology, and I am sure he would have been thrilled by the idea of his books being available electronically.(via bookshed.eu)

The universally successful 007 brand has made the transition from print to digital. Feel a trend here?

Update:

What started with a couple of takes spawned a longer, broader curated artifact mashup on the same topic: Bond dumps Penguin, goes digital

To ISBN or not to ISBN… That is the question!

There are many reasons for using a unique identifier for an e-book. It helps with discoverability and allows you to separate out the different formats of the title, which in turn allows you as a publisher or writer to see how it is doing in various channels. The ability to measure the success rate of each e-book format for any given title is paramount to good marketing. The ISBN also gives you control over your title and your content. If you let someone else assign an identification number to your content, you lose that control, both in terms of quality and ownership…There are a variety of reasons to add the ISBN on your own as well, either as the author or publisher; one very important reason being that if you don’t assign an ISBN, the distributor could assign one for you, which could result in multiple ISBNs for the very same type of file (as sold through a wide variety of distribution channels). The bloat is likely to make collating and tracking sales data –- and thus looking at overall performance for a title — all the more complicated.Though, as discussed here, there is no universal answer as to whether or not each format requires individual ISBNs, one thing is indeed clear: take control of the process. The worse thing you can do is lose control of your content or let another entity (whether conversion house, distributor or retailer) control the metadata and, accordingly, the invisible ties that bind you to your customers. Ceding too much control takes you out of the picture and makes this already complex situation all the more challenging. (via publishingperspectives.com)

Erik Christopher’s article got me thinking… I know nothing about ISBN numbers. Onward march!

Related articles

• BISG releases policy statement on assigning ISBNs to digital products (teleread.com)

Have you been debating the best e-reader to buy? Wondering if this is just a bizarre fad or the future or reading? iPad, Nook, Kindle? Here are a few choice samplings from Ars Technica’s review of the Amazon Kindle 3.

During a stint in California, I once wandered into a ramshackle San Diego bookstore and began browsing the back shelves in search of dusty treasures. After some time, the owner—who appeared to be an aging hippie—popped up at my side like an apparition, giving me a terrific start. He talked at me about his store. “I don’t sell books,” he said, leaning uncomfortably close. “I smell books.” To prove his point, he took a volume off the shelf, pulled it to his nostrils, and inhaled deeply, lovingly, bibliophilically—the book as bong hit.

It’s not all good news. The Kindle interface still feels like something that escaped from 1985 and time-traveled into the future. Text-based interface with no mouse or touchscreen? Black-and-white screen? Small delays between issuing commands and seeing their results? Check, check, and check—and if you try to do much with the Kindle beyond straight, front-to-back reading, these limitations will feel… limiting.

All the same words were there, but the experience was strangely sterile. My California booksmeller would have understood. Whatever e-books are and however useful they may be, they aren’t “books.” Instead, we get the content with little to no attention to form and to design. Everything about a book is distilled into odorless words; all else is waste to be thrown away.

Perhaps the reader of the future won’t look like a Kindle, but more like a multifunction tablet (think iPad or even the new Barnes & Noble Nook). In either case, both classes of devices are now good enough, and the content is finally varied enough, that it’s possible to envision the wholesale shift to digital texts. Plenty will be lost—including the smell—but so much will be gained… Book lovers will mourn the change and carp endlessly about typography, design, cover art, and the facing page format, but music and movies have already showed us that people will make the switch to digital convenience even at the expense of quality.

via Ars Technica